Will they recover??? Stunted growth...

I tried germinating 4 seeds in rooting plugs. They ended up as still births... they popped, but after nearly two weeks, never rooted.


So with fresh seeds I went back to the paper towel method and the new ones all sprouted normally.


The NL took off right away. Within 24 hours it's taproot was over an inch long. The others lagged behind a bit but within a few days they were all in soil, and after 10 days they all sprouted and were looking 'normal'.

But after another week they seemed to not be growing at all. I thought at first it might be the cheap Home Depot organic potting soil. So I transplanted them into FF Happy Frog. Then I read on the boards here that 24/0 light isn't good for them. Duh. Stupid me. I had them under 24/0 the whole 2-3 weeks.


They've been in the new FF HF soil for over a week now under 18/6 light and they're growing new leaves, but they're still growing slow and seem to be staying small. Will they recover and begin to grow 'normally' considering the early abuse they had?

In a way I don't mind so much if they stay small because this time around I'm doing a small cab grow. I'll be transplanting them into 2 gallon pots in a week or so, depending on how they look. And if I can keep them under 24" tall when they finish flowering all will be golden. But will they get there?

Just wondering, has anyone else made this mistake? If so, what were your results? Or is this a do-over?

sow seeds directly into soil...preferably a seed starter soil...
i wouldnt repot till they at 5 nodes tall ..at that time they will have a full recovery and hopefully have a nice root system by then. GL

I stressed my bagseeds pretty good from seedlings till early veg but they survived and 4 are flowering nicely now so new, healthy growth is a good sign the plants are recovering. 1-3 weeks is an acceptable recovery time for stressed plants in my opinion. Good luck and happy growing!

Im willing to bet, your watering too much or your using hard water. Temps lower then 70f will noticeably slow down young seedlings aswell.
Seedlings will take the fuck off in happy frog. Any pics? As far as light schedule, they will actually grow more under 24hrs vs 18/6. The less light, the more the plant tries to stretch. In a small cab, you want close nodes not stretched stems.

Too much moisture probably... damping off

I do this to myself constantly.

Gquebed said:

Too much moisture probably... damping off

I do this to myself constantly.

Click to expand...

Right there. Could very well be that and with seedlings it doesnt take much. Now that you've transplanted them, it might give them a bit of shock from it but it should only last a few days till they start picking up. Happy Frog should do just fine here.

As long as you dont over water again they should start off growing at a good rate.

But....it will take a few days for their roots to find the bottom of the pot. After that they should go again, as long as their isnt too much root damage....

I think it may be the cold that's the problem. (Or at least an additional problem.)

Lights-on, the cab runs around low 80s. Lights-off, it drops down to mid 60's. That wasn't an issue when I first started this round. The temps in the basement never dropped below 70, but the weather turned cold since then. I should've started my seedlings a month earlier, somewhere around the end of September early October.

As for watering, I haven't over watered, but the low temps in the cab don't bode well for the girls. The soil isn't drying up as fast so I have to learn to adjust for lower temps when I water. They are coming along though. Slowly, but the growth looks healthy, if a bit over watered.

It's a different animal going from a closet grow where temps never dipped below 78 and typically ran in the mid to upper 80s, to a basement grow where it gets down to low 60s in the dead of winter with the lights off. I'm having to learn how my to adapt my grow to a new environment. I'm also going to have to get some heat down there somehow. It's colder, dryer, and the temp varies more drastically between hot and cold.

I've read that the cold temps bring out the purple in purps. But I suppose that should only happen once the girls get into flowering. Anyway,

Thanks to all for your advice.
I'll post some pics at some point soon as a find the time.